Two prolific thieves who plagued Blackburn town centre by breaking into businesses, causing misery for shopkeepers have been jailed.

In October last year, Anthony Eden was banned from all retail outlets in Blackburn town centre and a nearby retail park under a Criminal Behaviour Order.

The order was made against Eden, 42, for two years and prohibited him from entering retail outlets in the town centre or Nova Scotia retail park.

However, on May 12 he appeared in court once again charged with breaching the order no less than nine times.

He was also charged with four shoplifting offences and two attempted shopliftings and was jailed for 16 weeks. 

On May 20, Carl Poynton, 44, of Broughton Close, Blackburn, appeared before the courts charged with a non-dwelling burglary and was sentenced to 10 weeks imprisonment.

He had previously been sentenced to eight weeks in prison in February for shoplifting in the town centre, and is a person of interest to the police under their operation Beacon investigation, which targets retail crime and anti-social behaviour.

A spokesperson for the police said: "Op Beacon continues, and hopefully we will have more results to share soon.

"Please continue to report incidents by ringing 101 for non-emergencies or 999 in an emergency.

"You can also report incidents online on the Lancashire Constabulary website."